Do people have a similar experiences of AS?

Post Reply New Topic

In my room recovering from a long day at a park with my nephew. What ever way I am I don't care because I will put up with what ever to be there for him. I may be a little obsessed with him but he needs me and I need him.
I'm just trying to get to grips with how Aspergers affects me. Sensory issues- some thing I am ok with like the hoover(actually for some reason the hoover and hairdryer soothes me). It's high pitched noises and banging noises that get to me. Also loud power tools but I have used them before and seemed ok with them. Power tools is something that differs, sometimes I will panic, sometimes I won't. It's just afterwards I was really glad of the silence like as if it was affecting me but it wasn't a huge panic. Multiple noises and images get to me the most. Shopping Centres and supermarkets are the worst culprits. Sometimes humming noises get to me and sometimes I don't hear them at all. I am ok with some fabrics but the feel of a skipping rope against ones hand- I hate it. I remember thinking this since Toy Story when the soldiers slid down the skipping rope. Also clicking nails- shudder. I don't like balloons either but I don't think I was like that when I was a kid. Can new symptoms still develop even as an adult? Can you go through a period where you seem to be coping better but then fall back into old ways? With me it has always been the case that things are always simmering on the inside and only from time to time that a noticeable reaction occurs.

What got me thinking about this was after the long day I am absolutely wrecked and am drained. But when I was there I was relatively ok. The only sounds I could hear was the children shouting and all that and a few other things but as I said I would put up with whatever to be there for my nephew. The social side of things- I must be trying to figure out all the time what is the right thing to be doing but at the time I am not consciously aware of it. I don't know whether it's because I chose to ignore any of my issues or that I have accepted the fact that I am different and don't care any more about trying to do the right thing socially.There was a few times when I had to interact with strangers that I noticed I was trying to calculate all the time during the interaction.
I would always rather be on my own but I can put up with a social situation if I absolutely had to, except for bars and nightclubs- I am completely done with them. What is other peoples experiences of sensory and social issues?

I chose the third option. Many people say that that's just saving up anger, meaning I will ravenously explode some day, (that's how they describe people like me, right?) which in fact has never happened, and it works well for me.

I hate doorbells. Even on the TV, they make me feel like I've just been tasered. I refuse to even come to the door and look through the peephole unless I'm expecting someone.

When I first read the Autism criteria in the DSM, I was puzzled by the phrase "may hear sounds or see lights that others do not." I took that to be a description of some sort of hallucinatory phenomenon and while I could identify every other Autism characteristic in myself, I had no history of hallucinations.

Then, over the next few days, I had an epiphany, when I remembered that once I was in a room with a half-dozen friends and acquaintances, chatting - I forget the nature of the conversation, we were all high - and as an analogy of something, I mentioned that the old vaccum-tube black-and-white TV sets used to make a very faint, high-pitched squealing noise that I could hear even when the volume was all the way down, even all the way down the hall in my room with the door closed. All but one of the people in the room just stared at me blankly like I'd suddenly spoken in Chinese. Only one of them had a clue what I was talking about, and he was an electronics buff, who explained that it was the RF exciter at the back of the Cathode ray picture tube that made that noise and it was above the range of normal human hearing. I had grown up thinking everybody could hear that.

Once in a mall, my ex and I were walking through a Hallmark store, where one of their fluorescent light panels was defective and making what was to me, an awful racket, buzzing and sputtering and flickering like a Frankenstein lab. I commented to her how loud and annoying that light was and she said "What light?" I pointed it out to her from across the store and she said she could see it flickering a little, but didn't hear a thing. I walked her over to it and we stood underneath it and still she could not hear the LOUD buzzing noise. Other customers passed while we were talking and apparently none of them heard anything unusual, either.

On a winter evening, just before Christmas, I walked with my family across a WalMart parking lot, headed into the store. It was dark and overcast and the parking lot was filled with customers going back and forth chatting and laughing. From somewhere above the low-hanging cloud cover, I heard a noise, like a sputtering lawn mower. I looked up to see headlights floating above the store building, heading diagonally across the parking lot toward us. I stopped to look and my family moved a few steps ahead of me - none of them seemed to notice the loud, abrasive sound over their heads. I glanced across the parking lot and NOBODY but me was looking up at this strange vehicle. As it caught and reflected the parking lot lights, it looked like an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars, only flying BACKWARDS. I said loudly "What the hell is that?" and they just kept walking. So I shouted to my family "Hey! What is that!?" They all turned around, but only the youngest boy looked up and said "Wow, COOL!" The rest were staring at me. I pointed to the sky, but by now the thing was disappearing into the cloud cover again. If the boy hadn't seen it, there would have been no other witness but me. I still don't know what it was, but what astounded me most was the number of people in that parking lot who DIDN'T HEAR OR SEE A THING. Kinda makes you wonder how much else goes on in this world that human beings are oblivious to.

Interesting analogies. I don't think my hearing is sensitive to the point of hearing small sounds very loudly but I am more sensitive than normal to loud noises. I don't know if that is a symptom of AS.
I am surprised that no one could hear the sounds you were describing or hear very little. In the shopping centre I would probably be too distracted by everything going on around me that I would probably miss that sound unless I was quite close, but the plane I would have thought everyone would have been able to hear that. Not so sure about the t.v. because I have never experienced a black and white tube telly. What used to drive me mad was the sound of the fuzz coming from the old colour aeriel tellies.

I am prone to bizarre energy outbursts, I often let out a meltdown through my sentient imaginary friend Gwydion. The Internet calls it Tulpas but this is one of my better methods of regulating it. They are most helpful for distraction when things like sensitivities can get often too much.

Sometimes I can cope sometimes I can't.
The can't cope day seem to be when I'm overly tired, when I'm emotionally drained, or when the continuing overstimulation just gets too much.
It seems to be cumulative, so if there's some noise for a little while - 5 - 10 minutes I can deal with it, but if it continues for longer it will start to fray my nerves.
All day noise, like construction, traffic, someone else's music, or TV will drive me to distraction, and I tend to turn up the stereo to try to dull it down and concentrate on my choice of noise.

I absolutely need quiet time as well.
If I can't get any quiet time at home I will walk through the wilderness, go to the library, or close up all the doors and windows, put on headphones, get in bed and listen to "ambient" music - keyboards and wilderness sounds such as bird calls and waterfalls etc.

I think what gets to you can change over time; some things you get used to, but usually at the cost of something else getting on your nerves.
You can learn to desensitise yourself to things by controlled exposure, but you can be sure something else will come across to replace it.
I hate the sound of drills, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, or clothes dryers, unless it's mine and I'm using it - its' about having a sense of control over the noise.
The exact same equipment used by my neighbour would drive me mad.
I've disconnected the doorbell as I can't stand it; another noise I can't control.
Also can't stand leaf blowers, lawn mowers, line trimmers, saws, etc - you get the picture, loud oscillating sounds.

Supermarkets and shopping centres I can cope with - provided I go there when it's not too busy.
I can cope with the lighting, the noise and the stimulation from the products, but the variable of people moving around and having to be accounted for when manoeuvring through is too much if it slows me down - I just want to get in, get what I need and get out, and anything that slows my progress is very annoying, to the point where I may walk out without purchase, even if they have what I want.
Likewise if I have to wait in a line behind too many people in a shop - say more than 6, I just can't do it, and I'll drop what I wanted to buy an walk.
I also HATE self serve checkouts. If I have one or two items, and they are easy to handle it's fine, but more than that, and I must have someone process my sale or I will walk out without the product.

Yeah i am hyper sensitive,
This includes noises, i very much resonate with all these replies and the original post.
When i was a child under the age of 10 years old noises affected me quite extremely, the most extreme case was in school (I was officially un-diagnosed for 20 years so i was in a normal school) and in my primary school in one of my classes they were still using the chalk board. When the teacher was using the last of the chalk it would screech onto the board, it literally sounded like a sharp stabbing sound through my gut and my brain would reject this sound, that was the time a sound actually made me vomit. I don't know what i looked like at the time but i remember that i was very upset by that sound and i had to leave the class and i was sick in the toilets.

Now-adays i haven't had a sound that upset me so much to the point of vomitting, but i am still sensitive to noises, as my sensory condition means that i can hear pretty much every conversation around me, i can hear alot of frequencies and that makes me feeling uncomftable sometimes, it's hardest in public areas such as restaruants, pubs, and places of a high atmosphere. In a quiet atmosphere i feel more comftable. I am more lucky now because i moved to a quietish area in the countryside, but before i was living in a small city and actually right behind a fire-station. The sirens would constantly be going off and it annoyed me a lot. I try to reason with the sound but living right behind a fire-station often they would go off just for a small second and in the mornings by accident i guess or because they were starting the engines up and left the siren on or something like that, it still wound me up. Drills also can really do my head in. There are some music and jingles that also drive me some what crazy. I am more comftable now living in a quietish area in a countryside town.

I've always been a stressy, tantrumy person, and that hasn't changed a lot as I got older. Obviously the tantrums I had as a child were more unpredictable and from random reasons. Now they are mostly caused by people ''pushing my buttons'', and isolation.

A few years ago I used to hate people saying things like ''you're acting like a 2-year-old'', or ''grow up, you're not a child any more'' or other things like that. It was just something that pushed my buttons. Now I don't worry too much about that, although I still prefer not to have that being said to me.
Now I really despise when people say ''stop moaning'' to me. I get really angry, and just yell, ''I'LL f*****g MOAN MORE NOW THAT YOU SAID THAT TO ME!''

My meltdowns always involve crying, screaming, hitting myself in the head, swearing, threatening suicide, and screaming insults mostly about myself. I HATE getting in those moments, but at the time I can't always help myself.

It is good to see I am not alone in these experiences. For a while I thought..... well I didn't know what to think. Feelings of rage or desperation would just bubble up inside and I had no clue why. I generally only am visibly upset (tantrums, shouting, pacing, frustration), when I am with my family. Otherwise I tend to keep it to myself. It used to all build up until I would eventually crack and it all comes out at once. Even then it's more of an implosion than an explosion even though there are some visible signs of my distress.
The poll that I included. I can relate to the last three options depending on the situation. I found it interesting that the majority has picked the third option. That would be my most frequent reaction. I really thought I was alone on that one.
The isolation doesn't really bother me because I am never completely isolated.
The "stop moaning" has been used a lot with me so now I rarely say anything at all.
What really pushes my buttons is people saying "just go out and live your life". It's not like I havn't tried.

How do people react to temperature?
Ireland is having some sort of heat wave and I felt very off today. Dizzy, lightheaded, chills, headache. I don't know whether it's exhaustion that caused this or a reaction to the heat, or both. Also the buzzing of flies was really wrecking my head. They seemed to follow me everywhere I went. When I blocked out all of the light, put in my ear phones I began to feel better. I also had the fan blowing right into my face. That was the biggest help. This has happened a few in past summers when we had heat. I was just wondering if this is a common reaction. There probably is nothing more I could do than what I have done today, is there?